


sincerely and earnestly, among other things

by llien



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Childhood Friends, Domestic Fluff, Flirting, Loss of Parent(s), M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-11
Updated: 2020-02-11
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:27:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22669279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/llien/pseuds/llien
Summary: It felt like time slowed to a crawl as Riku saw them. His own parents hadn't bothered with too many photos and there weren't any videos. In fact, Sora's home had more pictures of Riku than his own, but this was the first time he'd seen a video.They looked... small. Small, with round cheeks. Sora especially looked adorable. His hair was tamer, sticking out around his ears reminiscent of a baby kitten, and he sat with his legs tucked under him, eyes the same bright blue as they were now."Wow," Sora breathed, "you were so cute as a kid!"
Relationships: Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 253





	sincerely and earnestly, among other things

**Author's Note:**

> [Here's the video this is based off,](https://youtu.be/YtLEWVu815o) which I highly recommend watching before reading this. It's kids attempting piaget's tasks.....and failing. Shoutout to Cru for linking it to me ♥
> 
> I love the hc that Riku feels more at home in Sora's house than his own. A little sad, maybe, but he still has that comfort. 
> 
> I'll also never forget that Aqua describes Riku as so sincere.

Riku hummed as he moved around the kitchen as familiar as his own, his foot pulling a lower cabinet over to retrieve a stored cutting board. Splayed across the counter top were the typical sandwich fillings — for all that Sora was a five star chef now, he sometimes still whined for Riku to fix him a snack.

Sora's mutterings drifted from the living room into the kitchen as he dug around in the entertainment console, looking for _something_ he wouldn't tell Riku about. Every window in the house was open, since it was a surprisingly cool day, on the cusp of spring as it migrated from winter. The springs were notoriously short and the winters a straight up joke on the islands. The most they got was weather that could _possibly_ warrant a jacket. Still, on breezy days like this it felt perfect.

Sora's mom was working on the main land, leaving them alone for the afternoon, hence Riku fending for themselves with basic sandwiches and some fruit Sora had cut earlier.

He layered Sora's share with every possible ingredient and then fixed his sparingly, and right as Riku loaded up the plates to carry over he heard Sora's telltale, "Ah-hah!"

"Finally found it?" Riku asked, stepping from the kitchen through the open double doors that Riku had never seen closed. He rounded the couch and set the plates on the wicker coffee table, sitting cross-legged on the cushions Riku had helped himself to from the couch.

"Yep!" Sora said around a long-since eaten popsicle stick, wiggling it between his teeth as he fiddled the VCR. "Mom said she saw this recently and really _really_ wanted me to show you. Don't know why though."

"Huh," Riku said, popping a cut fruit into his mouth as he wondered what she could've possibly wanted him to see. He got along well with Sora's mom, in the 'was practically a permanent addition to her family register growing up' way. She used to joke Riku _was_ her kid, and always accounted for him in any plans she made. In retrospect, Riku had been a considerable burden, but he'd never felt like one _here,_ a blessing that remained to this day with how he he knew where the butter knives were and how he didn't hesitate to snag the well-loved pillows to sit on.

Riku watched as Sora made more nonsense sounds than needed as he plugged the VCR in and connected all the wires, mildly surprised they still had the clunky old thing. Sora blew a copious amount of dust off the VCR itself, the tape too, and then finally popped it in. It loaded slowly, such a distinctly nostalgic and familiar sound that Riku felt six years old again, wrapped in his comforter with Sora squished against him. The memory passed as the breeze tugged on his hair, wind chimes tinkling and mingling with distant surf water crashing while the television screen flickered blue then black and glitched some until the image finally stabilized.

Instead of bothering to get up, Sora crawled across the knit rug, around the table, and settled on his own cushions, grabbing his sandwich in one hand and depositing the stick with the other.

"So, no idea what it is?" Riku asked as he got comfortable. The screen flickered with dead air for a while.

"Nope, but she had the biggest grin on," Sora said. "I don't remember the last time she used that camera, so it's probably _super_ old."

Riku's brows furrowed. _Camera?_ Was this a recording and not an old movie? A recording of what—

Color finally flashed across the screen and brief static overwhelmed the wind charms and breeze and ocean waves until someone's voice took over.

_"—this thing doesn't work."_

_"It totally works."_

_"I'm telling you it doesn't!"_

Riku stiffened. That was definitely Sora's dad, which not only dated the video from years and years ago, but probably was from a time when Sora would barely remember. He slid his gaze from the TV to Sora and found him thoughtfully chewing, one arm propping him up, the other arm lazily on his bent knee, hand threatening to drop the lettuce from his sandwich. As if sensing his gaze, Sora looked up through the mess of his hair and gave him a stuffed-cheek-smile, clumsy and goofy, but sincere enough. Riku gave a small smile back, and looked back at the video playing.

_"See, look, the red dot means its recording."_ In the distance was some chatter, and the POV of the camera swung from some tile of the kitchen counter, back before Sora's mom remodeled it, to the hardwood floors that were still the same. Sock clad feet briefly tipped into view with lumbering footsteps as Sora's dad walked into the same living room Sora and Riku were in now. The furniture was a little different, the rug had changed — Riku could barely remember the one in the video, but it gave him a sense of warmth that he could place it at all — and at the table was a younger version of themselves.

It felt like time slowed to a crawl as Riku saw them. His own parents hadn't bothered with too many photos and there weren't any videos. In fact, Sora's home had more pictures of Riku than his own, but this was the first time he'd seen a video. 

They looked... small. Small, with round cheeks. Sora especially looked _adorable._ His hair was tamer, sticking out around his ears reminiscent of a baby kitten, and he sat with his legs tucked under him, eyes the same bright blue as they were now.

"Wow," Sora breathed, "you were so cute as a kid!"

A furious blush licked up Riku's cheeks. His bite of sandwich promptly went the wrong way and Sora wasted no time in slapping his back to unhelpfully be useful. Even more embarrassed, Riku lifted watery eyes to see what Sora was talking about.

Seeing himself as a kid was... odd. He remembered brushing his hair straight until he was in his teens, and it was still like that in this video. But instead of what he expected from himself — bratty, sassy, a little shit all around quite frankly, since current Riku was gleefully all that and more — he found something different.

Little Riku was talking, in that charming stop-start way kids had, when they had difficulties forming full sentences without pausing every few words. He was practically _chattering,_ hands busy moving stuff around on the table as he kneeled beside Sora. There were full glasses of milk his younger self took care to move out of Sora's wayward reach, a startling mindful move that flustered Riku. Even _that_ young he'd been minding Sora? God.

"Good?" Sora asked, and Riku cleared his throat and nodded. 

Sora's dad sat at the table, capturing Riku and Sora in view perfectly.

_"What're you two up to now?"_ Sora's dad asked with clear mirth. If he thought hard, Riku could vaguely remember his appearance. Sandy blonde hair, blue eyes, a healthy tan and a leather bracelet around one hand Riku could remember holding when he'd been younger. He'd called him _mis-ser,_ a lisp born from a few missing teeth. Sora's dad had been so charmed, he'd insisted everyone else call him that, too. 

Strangely, Riku realized he missed him. He was a person Riku could barely remember, but what he did spoke of warm hugs, a cologne hidden under sunscreen and ocean and sun, rough calloused palms that never hesitated to swing Riku up to sit on his shoulders, a motion so foreign that he didn't know what to do but grip his hair. Belatedly, it occurred to Riku that he missed _him_ more than his own father, even though he'd gone a few years now without even thinking of him. 

For a moment, he wondered if he should ask Sora how he felt, but he seemed calm watching the video, and so Riku decided to let sleeping dogs lie.

_"We're,"_ Riku began, paused, looked around and kept going, hands clumsily holding something, _"I'm gonna show Sora somethin'!"_

_"Oh?"_ Sora's dad asked, amused. Sora was chattering away, telling Riku about a story. In the background, Sora's mom was laughing. As if remembering just how close to him Sora had once been, he shifted his weight to lean against Riku.

_"Yeah!"_

_"Show him then,"_ Sora's dad said, and Riku nodded very seriously. Wow, his cheeks _really_ had been pink then. Sora's were less so, and Riku wondered if he was just sunburned. The video quality was admittedly poor, both from the camera itself and the years the tape had sat in the console untouched, but Riku's red cheeks stuck out like a sore thumb.

_"Okay,"_ Riku said, and he set out two graham crackers in front of Sora, and one in front of himself. _"Sora!"_

_"Hm?"_ Sora asked, tilting his head as his hands immediately came up to grab the cookie. He didn't bite it, but even then it was obvious Sora couldn't keep his hands still. As if to mimic himself, Sora reached for a piece of fruit.

_"We're gonna share some cookies! Do we— is there the same? We both have the same?"_

It was odd to watch himself struggling with speech. He never interacted with kids, couldn't even remember the last time he'd seen one, really. The difficulty of parsing through words or expressing himself was as present then as it was now, funnily enough. 

_"Uhmmm,"_ Sora said, blue eyes flickering between Riku and Sora's share. He dropped his cookie and clumsily pointed at his two, carefully counting aloud _oneee—twoo!_ And then looking at Riku's single one. _"Nuh-uh!"_

_"Why?"_

_"You have one!"_ Sora said, and his brow furrowed, clearly distressed by this unequal sharing. Sora's dad snickered. _"And I... I have two."_

_"Okay,"_ Riku said simply, and then he took his graham cracker and cleanly snapped it in two. _"Now is it the same?"_

Sora literally lit up, _"Yeah!"_

And then the video feed cut short because Sora's dad started coughing he laughed so hard, and the screen cut to black with the occasional zig-zagging line as it continued to try and read blank tape.

Riku gaped at the television.

"Oh my God," Sora said. Then, louder, "Oh my G _od."_

"Sora don't—"

"Riku you gave me two cookies!"

"Sora _shut up—"_

Sora turned to face him, and if that wasn't the biggest shit eating grin Riku had ever saw then he was a liar. Even _Roxas_ couldn't top this grin. "You gave _me_ two cookies, Riku."

"No I didn't!" Riku blurted from sheer panic, and then bit his own tongue because _yeah_ he actually did. There was literal video evidence. He covered his face with his hands. "Why did your mom bring this back up," he groaned.

Sora leaned his entire weight against Riku, grabbing his wrists to pull his hands away. Without the video to fill the silence, Riku could hear the breeze and windchimes and surf and his traitorously beating heart, too loud too much, _overwhelming._ His face was probably as red as it had been in that video.

His grin had died down into something else, eyes a little shiny and cheeks pink. Riku wished he could look away. 

"That was really cute, Riku," Sora said promptly, winning the staring contest as Riku immediately cut his gaze away.

"You would've started crying if you'd ended up with one and I had two," Riku defended.

"You still could've broken _mine_ into two," Sora countered.

"They were always telling me to take care of you!" Riku said, though how that counted as an argument was beyond him, he just had to say _something._

"My dad thought it was cute, too," Sora easily retorted, and that brought Riku up short. He relaxed his hands, letting Sora continue to cradle his wrists in his lap as Riku studied his face. There wasn't a hint of sadness or any negative feeling. Catching the shift in feeling, Sora tilted his head curiously.

"How do you feel?" Riku asked, leaning forward. Sora's back was to the window and his hair kept gently shifting forward with the wind. "Seeing your dad, I mean."

Riku was so disconnected from his own parents that he couldn't even imagine what Sora must be feeling, if anything at all.

Sora sat back on his haunches with a careless, boyish shrug, gaze drifting back to the black television screen. "I don't know. Funny thing is, I feel like that's the first time I've ever heard his voice, but... at the same time... it made my heart, a little." He let go of one of Riku's wrists to cradle his heart, eyes going distant. "I probably do remember it, here, from when I was little."

Riku touched the back of Sora's hand, startling him. He gave him a smile. "I kind of miss him too. Not like you, but... he was nice."

"Was he?" Sora asked, blinking, and Riku nodded.

"He thought it was funny I couldn't say his name. He used to pick me up a lot I think. You used to run and jump at him." The more he spoke, the more a dozen, tiny glimpses of memories sprung up. He couldn't remember the sound of his laugh or voice beyond what they'd just seen, but he could remember how they'd made him feel. He tweaked a bit of Sora's hair by his cheek. "You're even going a little blond now, like him."

"Huh," Sora said, reaching up to twist some of his bangs into view. "I thought this was because of Ven or Roxas." It wasn't really wholly blond, but enough to seem almost sun-bleached at the ends.

"Maybe," Riku allowed, shrugging. "Your mom knew he was in this video. I guess she wanted you to see him, too."

"I guess," Sora said, dropping his hand. His other was still holding Riku's wrist, as if forgotten there.

Hoping Sora wasn't feeling too sad, Riku reached over and took all three pieces of fruit still left there, eating them whole. Sora gasped, scandalized. "Riku!"

"What?" Riku said around his food. He swallowed hard and grinned. "Apparently you owe me a _lot_ of food now."

Sora groaned, shoving his plate as far from Riku as possible, even though it was empty now. "That doesn't count! I'm younger than you, I get to have more food!"

"No," Riku said, sagging his plate to bring it back. "It means it's _your_ turn to be cute and give me your share!"

With an incensed growl, Sora launched himself at Riku, shouting something about how it was _so_ sad Riku wasn't cute anymore, what a shame. Riku let Sora pin him down, laughing as they devolved into their usual wrestling, and even though it was a tight squeeze between the couch and table, Riku found he didn't mind at all feeling hidden from the world on a spring day.

**Author's Note:**

> A silly oneshot is all this is. 
> 
> twitter | _oathbreaker


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